Daily Ayandegan (Iran)

News from Pakistan has lately been more encouraging. After the appointment of a Bengali—Dr. Abdul Malik—as the East Pakistan Governor in place of Lt.-Gen. Tikka Khan, now a 10-man cabinet, including some members of the Awami League, has been constituted to administer the Government. The army and the Martial Law Administration headed by Lt.-Gen. A. K. Niazi, have been instructed only to assist the civilian Government. In addition to this, President Yahya Khan has announced general amnesty for all those accused of committing atrocities during March 1 and September 5 this year and as a result, a large number of Bengali police and military personnel have also been released.

The political solution of East Pakistan begins right from here—appointing a civilian cabinet, abolition of military rule, keeping the military in the distant background, release of the political prisoners and, finally, entrusting the Government to the representatives of the people. Although Yahya Khan’s difficulties are not few, yet he is, apparently, following this path. First of all, there are several elected Awami League members who migrated to India and are, now, finding their way of return barred. And, there is the need for joint efforts by more than one government in the sub-continent to make them return to their homes. The convening of a National Assembly session, having Awami League majority from the East Wing and the People’s Party from the West (led by Bhutto) will be the most dangerous phases to get through. It was in the elections to this parliament that the seed for the future problems was sown. Mujib’s Awami League won all the East Wing seats, excepting a few ones, without its getting a single vote from the West Wing. The West Wing parties too, did not secure a single seat in East Pakistan, although one of them, to the surprise of all, managed to obtain majority in West Pakistan. Just this fact that the National Assembly, divided as it is in two groups, clearly shows the peculiarity of the “National Assembly” and makes it future less optimistic. To these difficulties must be added the issue of a large number of MNA’s accused of being traitors due to participation in the activities of their now-defunct, Awami League Party. But, the general amnesty announcement by Yahya Khan has, to a large extent, solved this problem.

Despite all this, the National Assembly is the only lawful way to put an end to the emergency in Pakistan and to bring back the condition in which the Pakistanis can rebuild their country. Under those circumstances, any action making the way to reach a political solution impossible, will be tantamount to suicide. Mujibur Rahman’s trial will not help, at all, to this political solution, and any encounter of the military regime with the politicians in the West Wing might bring about tragic results. Insistence upon the fact that the parties in Pakistan should give up their regional nature and have political activity and influence in both the wings is, no doubt, beneficial to the unity of the country. But it cannot be a precondition to anything—and above all, to the formation of a national government and transfer of power to the representatives of the people. The regional nature of the parties in Pakistan is the result of the developments during the past 20 years, and an alternative for the same cannot be found in a short period and that too with the help of forcible measures. This is yet another of the problems which should be solved by the Pakistanis themselves after the normalisation of the situation and the return of a spirit of compromise.

Yahya Khan has, in his capacity as a soldier and President, so far, endeavoured, more than he could be expected towards the preservation of Pakistan’s unity and the return of power to the people. He arranged the first-ever general elections in Pakistan’s history with a freedom worthy of praise and did what he could to meet the demands of the Bengalis on one side and the West Pakistani minority groups on the other. He disintegrated the One-Unit, according to the wishes of the people in the region, other than Punjabis, into four provinces namely Punjab, Sind, NWFP and Baluchistan. According to an observer, he presented the Prime Ministership to Mujibur Rahman in a platter. This was not Yahya Khan’s fault that Mujib did not accept the power and did not want to redress the problems in a legal way, the problems through exploitation of which he managed to emerge as a leader of the East Pakistanis and subsequently captured a majority in the National Assembly of the country. Whatever the constitution of the future Government in Pakistan, -Yahya Khan’s position remains secure though he himself on several occasions, has repeatedly expressed the desire to return to his military post. If some people in Pakistan are not willing to give priority to the political solution of this problem, they are not the friends of the President. On the other hand, they prefer, in the present situation, to act behind the scene temporarily, and would like their enemies to be finished by him (the President).